Why aren't receivers catching passes?

mizzoucoug wrote:
The only thing I can think of is lack of focus (they don't care) or lack of heart (they don't care). Catching a football is pretty simple thing to do for anyone with some experience and above average coordination.

At this point both options seem plausible. I can understand guys missing a few dropped passes in a year, AC dropped his fair share, but there is a sense of "oh well" when the ball is dropped this year.

snoscythe wrote:
Dale Murphy started out in the majors playing catcher, and he was a pretty dang good catcher too. One day though, he threw the ball back to the pitcher and accidentally threw it over his head, and a runner advanced on the throwing error. That mistake got in Murph's head, and he began to overthink what was he was doing and started to overthink his routine throws back to the pitcher. His throws to try and catch runners stealing started getting sprayed all over the infield. He just couldn't do it. The manager still wanted Murph's bat, so he put him in the outfield where he went on to become one of the greats of his time, and oddly enough, he was respected for his accuracy in his outfield assists. For some reason, his head got messed up, and he could never make infield throws, but he could nail the long throws from the outfield.



I think we have a similar issue in the receiving corps. A few rough days of dropped balls in camp, coaches yell at you, and suddenly you are playing a bit more tense and overthinking what should simply come naturally. This was probably exacerbated by the competition for starting spots.



What's more frustrating is the lack of effort across the board on offense. There is not a leader on the offensive side of the ball holding teammates responsible. Matt Reynolds is the leader of the offense, but he's going at it with a quiet workmanlike attitude that only works when you are winning. There is no one in the receiving corps that is trying to light a fire in the other guys. There is no one leading by example and making that extra effort to get things done. If it's not happening in games, I can only guess what the effort level is in practice. No one is setting the bar for excellence, so anything goes.



The future isn't looking good either. If they don't turn a corner this week, you might as well forget any improvement over the rest of the season. If they start thinking this is a lost season--a "rebuilding year," what is their motivation to improve here and now when the urgency is gone? This is simply a group of receivers (and an offense as a whole) without a leader driving them to excel. Someone needs to step up and show the way.

I think is definitely part of it. I am also worried at this point that whatever the problem is, it has become so big that it spills all the way into next year.



There is just something off. Our guys are domoralized. They seem to even be trying. Jacobsen didn't even try and stop that guy from getting an interception.



I know you don't want to talk coaches but I think the indecisiveness on many fronts including qb has lead to rifts, frustration and distraction. This team is lost. I don't know but if I had to pick something I pick not picking a qb and uniting the team around him. The two qb crap was bound to fail and it split the team and caused execution issues. At this point we are now getting worse probably due a lot to what sno pointed out.



I mean look at what not picking has done to the fans. We have camps amd aer split ourselves. Is it not likely that the players probably feel the same way.



Bronco has lost control of this team



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I think its the lack of reps with Heaps. Jake throws a hard pro style ball. I think as they get more reps they will drop the ball less.

I think its the lack of reps with Heaps. Jake throws a hard pro style ball. I think as they get more reps they will drop the ball less.

It's mental .... Kind of like when a putter gets a case of the yips or when a good free throw shooter goes cold for a bit .... you drop a few then you start thinking about it then you are screwed for a little while ... Also Jake throws the ball damn hard, which isnt a bad thing for the most part. Basically they just need to catch the GD ball.

jonnylingo wrote:
I think is definitely part of it. I am also worried at this point that whatever the problem is, it has become so big that it spills all the way into next year.



There is just something off. Our guys are domoralized. They seem to even be trying. Jacobsen didn't even try and stop that guy from getting an interception.



I know you don't want to talk coaches but I think the indecisiveness on many fronts including qb has lead to rifts, frustration and distraction. This team is lost. I don't know but if I had to pick something I pick not picking a qb and uniting the team around him. The two qb crap was bound to fail and it split the team and caused execution issues. At this point we are now getting worse probably due a lot to what sno pointed out.



I mean look at what not picking has done to the fans. We have camps amd aer split ourselves. Is it not likely that the players probably feel the same way.



Bronco has lost control of this team



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This is what I fear too. I think the indecisiveness has lost the team. I think we're going to see players going through the motions the rest of the way.

I don't buy it. Heaps has been throwing passes to his receivers since January, spring ball, summer, fall camp, and 5 games; they know exactly what kind of ball he throws. It's something else, and it isn't just one receiver, it's most of them. Hoffman has been pretty solid, as has DiLuigi, but the rest of them are awful.

LOL at the speed of the throws. I'm pretty sure his HS team didn't average 10 drops per game even with his "pro" arm. The issues are not physical but mental--the receivers don't care.

How about replacing the two wide outs and our TE and adding three more offensive linemen and run the power I? That would take care of receivers dropping any more balls....Sigh....I wish I knew the answer....I'm pretty sure that doing more of the same is not going to fix the problem. I was remembering last year's game against USU, Ashoworth had a monster game--Jacobson was out--and I thought my goodness these guys can be plugged in and all goes on....These guys CAN catch--they have--so the realy question for me is what has changed?

kfilly20 wrote:
It's mental .... Kind of like when a putter gets a case of the yips or when a good free throw shooter goes cold for a bit .... you drop a few then you start thinking about it then you are screwed for a little while ... Also Jake throws the ball damn hard, which isnt a bad thing for the most part. Basically they just need to catch the GD ball.

I have a really hard time believing Heaps throws the ball harder than Hall. A D1 college receiver should be able to handle a ball with some zip on it.



It's mental.

Of course the problem is mental. They have all shown they can catch or they would not be on the team.. BTW it is not that easy to catch a ball and try and do it with a 200+lb or safety coming towards you.



But it is a variety of mental reasons. Some are suffering from the "Dale Murphy" (I think of Chuck Knoblauch) syndrome. Basically self fulfilling prophecy. Worry so much about dropping it you drop it and it spirals out of control. Fixing it is the hard part. How do you give back somebody's confidence? It's different for everybody so this is a big challenge for the coaches.

Another mental problem is the concentration that is lacking. Even with a DB partially obstructing you view a D-1 WR should have caught many of the balls thrown.



As for the giving up or not running the route completely, that is a coaching issue.

Maybe they need to work on hand strength. I swear the ball bounces off their hands. You recruit the #1 QB in America. but the receivers can't handle the zip he puts on the ball. That's why Jake was #1... he can put the ball where it has to go. Too bad Jake's high school receivers could catch the football, while BYU's can't. We've all seen the pitching machine that has two tires spinning and pitches the baseball. They need one like that for football.... Crank up the speed and make it mandatory that each receiver catches for 10 minutes daily. It's really not fair to Jake that the receivers can't simply catch the football.......

You know, to start the thread out that you want to know why they aren't catching balls but we CAN'T say it has to do with the coaches isn't really fair. So far, only Sno has an explanation that seems genuinely plausible. Outside of that I'm not buying much.



I suspect that it has to do with what happens to the offense when they are forced to punt or turn the ball over after they get back to the sidelines. That's coaching. The teams that have beaten us this year have had seemed to be under their OC's wing BIG TIME.



It's like I said on another thread that Bronco should take responsibility for a loss in front of the media rather than effectively shift that blame onto the players; the reason for that being that by him stepping up and taking responsibility for the LOSS (not for the players' execution, which isn't quite the same thing.) the players in turn step up and take responsibility for THEIR role in the loss, which is exactly what you want the players to do.



When the offense gets to the sideline and all they hear from Anae or whomever what they ALREADY know, that they just didn't execute, they have nothing to get their spirits back up and every time it happens they feel worse and worse and get wound tighter and tighter and they make more and more mistakes.



Now imagine you're the quarterback or wide receiver or whatever, and you've just punted or turned the ball over, and you get to the sideline and instead of your coach staring you down or telling you what you already know or giving you the silent treatment....he takes all the blame. "I called the wrong play guys. That was my bad. Good execution. Don't worry about it. Come here. Here's what we're gonna do next."



Now YOU know it wasn't good execution. YOU know you threw the ball too high, or you dropped the pass, or you missed the block or you fumbled the ball or whatever, so THAT doesn't change. What changes is the way you FEEL and the way you FEEL about yourself, your teammates and your coaches MATTERS when trying to succeed in sports.



You notice the difference of how your coach reacting like that felt? Do you see how more relaxed you feel and hopeful for the next series? Also, did having the coach take the blame really release you from the fact that you KNEW you screwed up? Of course not. It doesn't do that. But rather than feeling defensive and stubborn in an attempt to protect yourself from criticism, anger, ridicule, or worse, the silent treatment from your coach, you let the mistake go, look at it objectively and teach yourself how to not make the same mistake again. In the mean time, you still feel like there's a chance to win the game despite your mistake, because of the relentless faith of your coach. No negative pressure. No negativity at all. Negativity kills faith and focus and a lack of faith and focus loses football games.



So I am open to Sno's explanation, but again...I suspect the coaches role in this receiving problem is just too big to ignore.

Gunk wrote:

It's mental .... Kind of like when a putter gets a case of the yips or when a good free throw shooter goes cold for a bit .... you drop a few then you start thinking about it then you are screwed for a little while ... Also Jake throws the ball damn hard, which isnt a bad thing for the most part. Basically they just need to catch the GD ball.

I have a really hard time believing Heaps throws the ball harder than Hall. A D1 college receiver should be able to handle a ball with some zip on it.



It's mental.

Heaps does throw a harder ball than Max. Max is basically smack dab in the middle in the Riley-Heaps comparison as far as arm strength. As far as accuracy, he is easily twice as accurate as either one on their best day, especially in live settings so far.



Strength of the throw shouldn't have anything to do with the recievers missing this many drops. Maybe like 10% if they were all wizzed in there, but he is even taking some off now.

Now I must add, I don't think the coach needs to say, "My bad" EVERY time. No, no. That really would come off disingenuous and players still need criticism and instruction and sometimes even a good yelling at, but such a method can definitely be used a few times a game just to relieve the tension that the players might be feeling if it's obviously affecting their performance. That tension, that fear of making a mistake, is playing a big role in all of this I believe, and coaches can do MUCH on the sideline to fix that.

Just to lend a little "ethos" to my argument here and to the other criticisms I've made to our coaches....



I know that many people like to say whenever you criticize a coach or a player, "I'd like to see you do better!" This is usually an attempt to prove you wrong not by attacking your logic, but by attacking you personally as a person unfit to criticize. It's cheap but for many people it actually works. That's why sports casters nowadays are for the most part, former players and coaches. People assume they are the only ones with enough credibility to speak on these things.



Well, I have never coached division 1 football, true, but I DID "coach" taekwondo for ten years (hence the screen name) and I learned a thing or two about how motivation works with people in a competitive atmosphere.



I know what it's like as a fighter to come back to your corner after a crappy round and to have your coach say, "You didn't do what I said, that's why you lost that round. Now go back out there and just do what I said to do." And when you come back after that round and you weren't able to pull it off again have his frustration build as if he's taking this all very personally and tell you AGAIN that you just didn't do what he told you. He doesn't offer another solution, seeing that you're having a hard time carrying out his game plan, he just makes you feel like an idiot for not being able to do it. By the time the third round rolls around you see no reason to even try.



Now, I've had that happen to me. I know how debilitating it is. Contrast that to the way I've seen good karate "coaches" react to struggles in their corners..."Great job man, great job. We almost had that round. You did good but it wasn't quite enough and that was my bad. We'll beat this guy we just need to change our angle. Let's try this."



Needless to say those who have coaches that act like that stay in karate a lot longer and have a lot more success. I would imagine that those same principles would apply for football, as I know what my football coach in high school was like. His utter lack of success on the field and his complete inability to motivate people in the right way was best illustrated by the fact that 90 sophomores my sophomore year played on the sophomore team. By junior year that was cut to 40. By senior year, only 7 of the original ninety players went out for the team. We won two games my senior year.



So there's my experience and why I seem to incessantly be harping on the coaches. I'm not just pulling my opinions out of thin air is all.

Wouldn't it be kind of ironic if oneil chambers came back and became that on field leader we are missing, the go to guy with sure hands, the reliable 3rd down catch? It would sure make reading CC easier because then half our threads would become one uniform thread of peace and harmony. ;)



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taekwondave wrote:
Now I must add, I don't think the coach needs to say, "My bad" EVERY time. No, no. That really would come off disingenuous and players still need criticism and instruction and sometimes even a good yelling at, but such a method can definitely be used a few times a game just to relieve the tension that the players might be feeling if it's obviously affecting their performance. That tension, that fear of making a mistake, is playing a big role in all of this I believe, and coaches can do MUCH on the sideline to fix that.

You'll notice that Heaps says "my bad" quite a bit on drops too. He needs to get pissed at some point and show some fire in holding them accountable for making him look worse than your usual true freshman.

Jacobsen didn't have trouble catching John Beck's passes. Heaps does not have the mustard on his passes that Beck could put on them. I think that the drops are a combination of lack of concentration and bad timing on the throws. Heaps is not getting the ball out on time and it is making the catches harder then they would be if he were. I think this will get better with time. This offense is going to improve, it is just going to take time. Hopefully Bronco will get the defense playing the way it needs to to keep us in games and give this young offense a chance to win in the 4th.

frdbtr wrote:
Jacobsen didn't have trouble catching John Beck's passes. Heaps does not have the mustard on his passes that Beck could put on them. I think that the drops are a combination of lack of concentration and bad timing on the throws. Heaps is not getting the ball out on time and it is making the catches harder then they would be if he were. I think this will get better with time. This offense is going to improve, it is just going to take time. Hopefully Bronco will get the defense playing the way it needs to to keep us in games and give this young offense a chance to win in the 4th.

No, the drops have nothing to do with bad timing on the throws. The drops everyone is referring to are the ones that are hitting 2 receiver hands and not being brought in. That is a terrible and errant excuse.